By
Reuters
Published
January 7, 2026
Furniture retailer IKEA is closing seven stores in China from February 2, it mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday.
The stores earmarked for closure embrace one in suburban Shanghai, one other in Guangzhou, and a number of other extra in second-tier Chinese cities comparable to Nantong, Xuzhou, and Harbin, IKEA mentioned in the assertion posted to its official WeChat account.
Retailers in basic have been struggling to develop gross sales in China, the place client sentiment stays muted following a extended property disaster and considerations about employment safety and stagnant wages. There are at the moment round 40 IKEA stores in mainland China, and the assertion mentioned 5 new stores of varied sizes have just lately opened.
China, the world’s second-largest financial system, accounts for round 3.5% of IKEA’s international gross sales. With a rising proportion of gross sales in the nation coming from on-line flagships, IKEA opened a brand new retailer on JD.com final August to assist domesticate that on-line gross sales progress.
“We will shift from scale expansion to precise cultivation, exploring Beijing and Shenzhen as key markets, and opening more than 10 small stores in the next two years,” IKEA mentioned in its assertion, including that new retailer openings in Dongguan and Beijing had been anticipated in the primary half of 2026.
© Thomson Reuters 2026 All rights reserved.